Line #6 Wrestling/AttitudeEra


1	[[quoteright:253:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/e127f33894a52c7ec127b74e02a7b3a2.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:253:[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIfIJkD4Wjc Get It.]]]]
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4	-> ''"Surely, the era of 'the superhero who urged you to say your prayers and take your vitamins' is definitely passé. Therefore, we've embarked on a far more innovative and contemporary creative campaign, that is far more invigorating and extemporaneous than ever before."''
5	-->-- '''Wrestling/VinceMcMahon'''
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7	In the mid-[[TheNineties '90s]], [[Wrestling/{{WWE}} the World Wrestling Federation]] faced tough times. [[Wrestling/WWENewGenerationEra Its "New Generation" Era]] product couldn't compete with the products turned out by rival wrestling promotion [[Wrestling/{{WCW}} World Championship Wrestling]] and upstart independent promotion [[{{Wrestling/ECW}} Extreme Championship Wrestling]]. WCW's ultra-hot Wrestling/NewWorldOrder angle took the wrestling industry by storm and ECW's focus on brutal violence and edgy storylines captured an adult audience turned away by the WWF's product.
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9	What did the WWF do to save itself from the verge of destruction? Why, it did what all great companies do: [[FollowTheLeader it copied everyone else's ideas]] -- and did them better.
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11	The WWF took a few pages out of the ECW playbook and injected [[DarkerAndEdgier extreme violence, overt sexuality, general vulgarity]], and even [[BloodierAndGorier shockingly bloody]] (albeit [[DownplayedTrope downplayed]]) moments into its programming. The move offended and shocked the [[MoralGuardians parents' groups]] who had grown used to the company's family-friendly programming during the days of Wrestling/HulkHogan and Wrestling/AndreTheGiant-- but the edgier content also drew in viewers in numbers the WWF had never seen before (and hasn't equalled since). Pay-per-view buyrates shot through the roof and TV ratings rose well above the ratings for WCW; the WWF had reclaimed its throne.
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13	The official start of the Attitude Era, as marked by WWE's official timeline, is March 29, 1998, the date of ''Wrestling/{{WrestleMania}} XIV'', where Wrestling/StoneColdSteveAustin defeated Wrestling/ShawnMichaels for the WWF Championship in what would be Shawn's last match for four years, due to an injured back-- indeed, Michaels was said to be fighting through extreme pain during the match. However, the transition wasn't immediate, and the tone of the product had been shifting for the previous 18 months; Austin's famous "[[EstablishingCharacterMoment Austin 3:16]]" speech at ''[[Wrestling/KingOfTheRing King of the Ring 1996]]'' (as well as his submission match with Wrestling/BretHart at ''[=WrestleMania=] 13'') elevated the Texas Rattlesnake to superstardom, whereas Michaels' involvement in the "Wrestling/MontrealScrewjob" at ''[[Wrestling/SurvivorSeries Survivor Series 1997]]'' and his role in the formation of Wrestling/DGenerationX helped build the atmosphere that fostered the Attitude Era (a notable assist also goes to the aforementioned Hart and his match with Austin, and to [[Wrestling/MickFoley Mankind]], whose feud with Wrestling/TheUndertaker brought more extreme matches into the WWF).
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15	However, without a certain event, the Attitude Era may not have occurred. Wrestling/KevinNash and Wrestling/ScottHall of Wrestling/TheKliq signed with WCW, and a legendary event, known as the "MSG Incident" or "The Curtain Call", happened at their last scheduled WWF appearance: Shawn Michaels, Triple H, Kevin Nash and Scott Hall embraced in a group hug before Nash and Hall went to WCW. This was a '''major''' break in {{Kayfabe}} since the people involved were enemies at the time. Hall and Nash could not be punished since they were leaving the company; Michaels could not be punished since he was WWF Champion at the time; [[TheScapegoat the only one who could be punished]] was Triple H, who up until that point was supposed to win the King of the Ring in 1996. Instead, "Stone Cold" Steve Austin won, following it up with the infamous "Austin 3:16" speech.
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17	The WWF also licensed a video game by Creator/{{Acclaim}} called ''WWF Attitude'', released in 1999 to much fanfare after the popular ''WWF War Zone''. Rather than sprites, the visuals were photo-realistic (for the time) 3D, there was tons of speech and voice samples, many wrestlers and outfits to unlock, and a great, in-depth "create-a-wrestler" mode. When it was released, it was considered the best wrestling game on the market, with Creator/{{THQ}} being the only ones close enough to touch it with their WCW entry. ''WWF Attitude'' managed to capture much of the spirit of a ''[[Wrestling/WWERaw Raw]]'' episode or [=PPV=] broadcast during the Attitude Era, hence the name, and at the time it was praised by many. However, the gameplay was considered stiff in its time, as well as the date of release. Though it included many of the {{face}} and {{heel}} wrestlers accurately, there was no Wrestling/TheBigShow and not many match types (for one, there was no "Hell in a Cell"). Arena customization was exclusively locked from the years 1997 to 1998. When Acclaim's license ran out, THQ picked it up and made the popular ''Wrestlemania 2000'' and ''No Mercy'' games, also based on the Attitude Era; the latter was considered one of the greatest wrestling games in the medium. They would also produce ''[[Wrestling/WWESmackdown SmackDown!]]'', which would later become ''Smackdown VS Raw''. ''WWE '13'' features the Attitude Era heavily as the main focus, with ''2K16'' also having a decent focus.
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19	Stone Cold Steve Austin was considered the Face of the Attitude Era, with The Rock later becoming co-protagonists with Austin, taking over as the company's Face when Austin took a year off to recover from neck surgery in late 1999. Though Vince [=McMahon=] was the BigBad, Triple H allied with Vince to became TheDragon and the biggest wrestling heel in the business; so it was that Austin, The Rock, and Triple H formed the "big three" of the Attitude Era, with ample support from Mick Foley, The Undertaker, and Kane.
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21	Famous events and matches associated with the Attitude Era include:
22	* An interesting ToneShift that led most wrestlers to self-examine and develop their characters due to the cutthroat competition with Turner's Wrestling/{{WCW}}. The most successful examples were often {{Face Heel Turn}}s:
23	** For most of the Attitude Era, heels outnumbered the faces, with Wrestling/ShawnMichaels and (more surprisingly) Wrestling/BretHart as the main villains between ''[=WrestleManias=] 13'' and ''XIV''.
24	** Wrestling/VinceMcMahon transitioned from a mere commentator to the dickhead boss "[[BadBoss Mr. McMahon]]".
25	** Wrestling/DwayneJohnson used this opportunity to transform from high-flying face Rocky Maivia into [[JerkJock The Rock]].
26	** The Ringmaster became Wrestling/StoneColdSteveAustin, a beer-fueled whoop-ass machine. (Basically becoming a [[WorkingClassHero working-class]] wish-fulfillment character.) He quickly became a crowd favorite despite his intentions.
27	** Wrestling/TheUndertaker switched his "American Badass" persona [[HeelFaceRevolvingDoor from face to heel, turning face half-a-year later and]] [[HeelFaceDoorSlam reverting back to the Deadman persona a year after that]].
28	** "[[Wrestling/BobHolly STP]]" became [[WrestlingDoesntPay Thurman "Spar]][[UsefulNotes/{{NASCAR}} ky" Plugg]] became Bob "Spark Plug" Holly became "Hardcore" Holly.
29	** In a subversion of the subversion, Wrestling/MickFoley became Dude Love, a fake face.
30	* March 3, 1997 -- Monday Night Raw is aired as a pre-taped show from Berlin, Germany. While the event did see the debut and awarding of the European Title to Davey Boy Smith, the show's production values were derided and would garner the lowest ratings Raw had received to that point. An enraged {{Wrestling/Vince McMahon}}, looking for new ideas and directions, would bring WWF Magazine editor/writer Wrestling/VinceRusso onto the Creative Team.
31	* March 10, 1997 -- Monday Night Raw receives a large revamp. It would see a new Titantron and a massive metal scaffolding area and entrance ramp, a design that would last for many years to come. Also, as a ploy to adjust ratings and mess with TV listings, Raw was (technically) split into two different shows- the first hour was known as RAW is WAR and the second hour was known as {{WarZone}}.
32	* The aforementioned ''[=WrestleMania=] 13'' match between Bret Hart and Steve Austin, which managed to perfectly execute a rare FaceHeelDoubleTurn: Austin (the heel) and Hart (the face) both turned after the match was over, with Austin becoming a badass face and Bret becoming an [[ForeignWrestlingHeel America-hating Canadian heel]] (he remained a face in Canada and other foreign territories, though).
33	* ''Wrestling/SummerSlam 1997'' -- Wrestling/OwenHart botches a piledriver on Stone Cold Steve Austin, which causes Austin to suffer a broken neck. As a result, Austin goes from a well-rounded wrestler (on par with Bret Hart) to a brawling wrestler, forcing a shift of his wrestling style. This would create the "main event" style of wrestling that would dominate the WWF for years to come.
34	* ''Badd Blood 1997'': The first "Wrestling/HellInACell" match, which featured Shawn Michaels going up against The Undertaker (as well as the debut of Wrestling/{{Kane}}).
35	* The formation and rise of Wrestling/DGenerationX, on the road to...
36	* ''Wrestling/SurvivorSeries 1997'' -- The Wrestling/MontrealScrewjob.
37	* ''Wrestling/RoyalRumble 1998'' -- During a Casket Match with The Undertaker, Shawn Michaels severely injures his back while falling on the casket. This would end Michaels' in-ring career during the Attitude Era. The injury also cemented the inevitable loss to Austin amongst smarks who knew Michaels would lose because he was too crippled to go on.
38	* The aforementioned ''[=WrestleMania=] XIV'' WWF Championship match between Austin and Michaels.
39	* The entirety of the Austin[=/=]Wrestling/VinceMcMahon feud, widely regarded as one of the best feuds of all time in professional wrestling.
40	* Wrestling/{{Sable}} taking her top off to reveal hand-shaped pasties. (And Lawler's subsequent reaction.)
41	* D-Generation X invasion of a WCW live event ''with a tank''.[[note]]Well, a jeep, but still.[[/note]] They also managed to raise WCW's ire by showing up to their headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia.
42	* On the April 13, 1998 episode of ''Raw'', Wrestling/VinceMcMahon snaps and challenges Wrestling/StoneColdSteveAustin to a main event match that night. The match never happens as a brawl occurs before it could begin, which is in turn interrupted by [[Wrestling/MickFoley Dude Love]]. However, the idea of a Wrestling/StoneColdSteveAustin versus Wrestling/VinceMcMahon main event causes ''Raw'' to finally beat Nitro in the ratings after '''82 weeks'''. ''Raw'' had a 4.6 rating versus Nitro with a 4.2 rating.
43	* The second "Hell in a Cell" match, where The Undertaker tossed Mankind off the top of the sixteen-foot-high cell onto the SpanishAnnouncersTable (and produced one of the most-used video clips in the company's history). The sight of Foley crashing through the table became this era's equivalent of Hulk Hogan slamming Andre The Giant to the mat, although Foley's later fall through the roof of the cage into the ring below was far more damaging (and far less rehearsed).
44	* The ''Survivor Series 1998'' main event: rising face The Rock aligned with Vince [=McMahon=] to screw Mankind out of becoming the WWF Champion (the first of WWE's many allusions to the Wrestling/MontrealScrewjob in the years that followed it), which gave rise to Wrestling/TheCorporation storyline.
45	* January 4, 1999: Mankind's first WWF Championship victory, which coincided with the infamous FingerpokeOfDoom segment from WCW. This prompted ''half a million viewers'' to tune Raw, turned the tide of the "Wrestling/MondayNightWars" in the WWF's favor, and secured WCW's downfall until its closure in 2001.
46	* The debut of Paul Wight, formerly "The Giant" in WCW, who broke through the ring during an Austin/[=McMahon=] cage match at the February 1999 pay-per-view ''St. Valentine's Day Massacre'', and threw Austin through the cage (costing Vince the match in the process). He later became the Wrestling/BigShow.
47	* The formation of the Wrestling/MinistryOfDarkness, led by The Undertaker.
48	* [[invoked]] [[FatalMethodActing The death of]] Wrestling/OwenHart, the first major death of a wrestler while employed by the WWF, which led to his widow filing a lawsuit against the company.
49	* The debut of Wrestling/ChrisJericho on ''[[Wrestling/{{WWE Raw}} Raw Is War]]'' in mid-1999, making him one of the first major defections from WCW to the WWF.
50	* The debut of ''[[Wrestling/{{WWE Smackdown}} SmackDown!]]'' on the Creator/{{UPN}} network.
51	* The ''Raw Is War'' segment known as "The Rock: This Is Your Life!", where Mankind paid tribute to The Rock, his then-tag team partner. This segment remains the highest-rated professional wrestling segment in television history (with an 8.4 rating).
52	* ''[[Wrestling/NoMercy No Mercy 1999]]'', which included the first tag-team "[[GimmickMatches Ladder Match]]" between "The Brood" members "The Hardy Boyz" (Wrestling/MattHardy and Wrestling/JeffHardy) and Wrestling/{{Edge\|Wrestler}} & Wrestling/{{Christian}}; and Wrestling/{{Chyna}} winning the Intercontinental Championship from Wrestling/JeffJarrett in his last WWF match (making her the first woman to ever hold the championship).
53	* The debut of Wrestling/KurtAngle, a RealLife [[UsefulNotes/OlympicGames gold medal Olympian from the 1996 Atlanta Summer Games]].
54	* Steve Austin being run down in a parking lot by an unknown assailant (later revealed to be [[spoiler:Wrestling/{{Rikishi}}, working on orders from Wrestling/TripleH]]) and taken out of action for ten months at ''Survivor Series 1999'' (the vehicular assault was the {{Kayfabe}} explanation for Austin taking time off for neck surgery).
55	* The Kayfabe marriage between Triple H and Vince's RealLife daughter Wrestling/StephanieMcMahon, which resulted in the "[=McMahon=]-Helmsley Faction/Regime" and Triple H becoming one of the WWF's biggest heels ([[TruthInTelevision the couple would later marry in]] RealLife).
56	* [[Wrestling/StacyCarter Stacy "The Kat" Carter]] briefly flashed the crowd at ''[[Wrestling/ArmageddonWWE Armageddon 1999]]'' following an "[[GimmickMatches Evening Gown in a Pool]]" match, marking the first instance of intentional nudity on WWF programming[[note]]Although according to Stacy, it ''wasn't'' intentional; what was intended was a ToplessnessFromTheBack shot where only the live crowd would see anything. A goof in the production room led to the wrong camera going out live.[[/note]]
57	* "The Radicalz" -- Wrestling/ChrisBenoit, Wrestling/DeanMalenko, Wrestling/PerrySaturn, and Wrestling/EddieGuerrero -- all appear on RAW just a few weeks after being released from their WCW contracts in early 2000.
58	* The retirement of Mick Foley at the hands of Triple H at ''[[Wrestling/NoWayOutWWE No Way Out 2000]]'' (and their instant-classic "[[GimmickMatches Street Fight]]" at ''[[Wrestling/RoyalRumble Royal Rumble 2000]]'' a month prior to Foley's retirement match).
59	* The Rock ending Triple H's reign as WWF Champion at ''[[Wrestling/{{Backlash}} Backlash 2000]]'', marking the first time The Rock becomes WWF Champion as a face.
60	* Steven Richards forms the PowerStable Wrestling/RightToCensor, consisting of Bull Buchanan, Wrestling/ValVenis, [[Wrestling/CharlesWright The Godfather (renamed 'The Goodfather')]] and Wrestling/{{Ivory}}. The group was a TakeThat to [[MoralGuardians the Parents Television Council]] protesting the smuttiness and edgy content of the Attitude Era, and ironically helped phase out many of the things MoralGuardians were complaining about.
61	* The Undertaker returns in his new "[[BadassBiker American Badass]]" persona, after having been away from WWF programming for several months.
62	* The Hardy Boyz, [[Wrestling/TheDudleyBoys The Dudley Boyz]], and Edge & Christian compete in the first "[[GimmickMatches Tables, Ladders & Chairs]]" match at ''[[Wrestling/{{Summerslam}} SummerSlam 2000]]''. Notably, the genesis of this match evolved from the earlier "[[GimmickMatches Triangle Ladder]]" match at ''[=WrestleMania=] 2000''.
63	* Steve Austin wins his third ''Royal Rumble'' in 2001, setting up...
64	* ''[=WrestleMania=] X-Seven'' (''[=WrestleMania=] 17''), which aired on April 1, 2001. The WWF had purchased WCW and many of its wrestlers' contracts, weeks prior to the event, and it had also hired on former ECW mastermind Wrestling/PaulHeyman as a color commentator (following the departure of [[Wrestling/JerryLawler Jerry "The King" Lawler]]) following ECW's bankruptcy. The Wrestling/MondayNightWars had ended, as had the need for an Attitude Era. At ''X-Seven'', Steve Austin defeated The Rock in the main event to win his fifth WWF Championship... [[FaceHeelTurn with the help of his long-time arch-nemesis Mr. McMahon]].
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66	People point to ''[=WrestleMania X-Seven=]'' as the end of the Attitude Era for a lot of reasons. (One of which being that everyone affiliated with WCW was relegated to silently watching ''[=WrestleMania=]'' from a skybox... could there have possibly been a more poetic visual than that?) WCW died the week before, ECW died shortly after (as a legal entity, ECW's last actual show took place on Jan. 13th, 2001), and the Austin/[=McMahon=] feud ended that same night, yet the industry had changed in a short amount of time. However, some also point to ''[=WrestleMania XIX=]'' being the real end of the Attitude Era, as the tonal shift of the product changed immensely with both Austin and Rock leaving shortly afterwards.
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68	Mileage varies on the quality of the WWF[=/=]WWE product after the end of the Attitude Era (since the company has lacked the competition that created the necessity for the Attitude Era), and when (or even if) it began to go downhill, but few can deny that the wrestling world hasn't been the same since.
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70	That being said, while WCW and ECW might have died, the WWF still had to brace themselves for an invasion… or rather, an [[Wrestling/TheInvasionAngle InVasion]]…

Context Wrestling / AttitudeEra